How to export facebook contacts and albums and more to Google Plus!

Google Plus, the new kid on the block is making waves (no pun intended GWave) and FB users are clamouring for invites. It won't be long before Google takes over the world. A nice UI, Google Plus looks like its here to stay.

But, a major reason why it is going to take time before Google+ becomes mainstream is the fact that your whole online life is pretty much on FB. No worries. A google chrome extension called Move your Photos is there to help you take your first step. It allows you to export FB albums directly to Picasa after which you can share them with your circles.

Facebook Messages (a.k.a Free International SMS)

Facebook messages page as you all know has been completely revamped. It now has much more functionality than before. Firstly, you get an email account with <fbusername>@facebook.com allowing you to send mails from Facebook to other email providers like Gmail, YahooMail etc. (If you haven't yet created  an fb username, do so asap. You can then login with your username rather than your email id and anyone in the world can view your profile with the link www.facebook.com/yourfbusername.) You can add attachments and even a pic/video with your webcam. Do check it out. It is pretty cool.

But the best thing is the fact that you can sync your cell number with Facebook messages. This can be done on the messages page of your facebook account after having created an email id with facebook. You will be sent an sms confirmation and Bingo! So, the next time someone sends you a message on facebook, you will also get it on your phone as a text message if he checks the 'send to phone' box while sending a message. You could also reply using your phone.

An awesome way to send free international sms, huh! Check this link out for more details.

Adding Facebook contacts to Gmail - Decoded!

It's official. How to add facebook contacts into your gmail contacts? Many of my facebook 'friends' were quite irritated with facebook's one way door policy which allows import of contacts from Gmail, hotmail etc but not the reverse. The catch here is that email ids we enter in our personal info is displayed as an image rather than text, which means you would have to add each one individually until now ofcourse. Prolificious claims to be able to do this, converting this image to text and adding contacts to your gmail. I don't know how far this is true as I have never used it myself because of its 'suspicious', shady name. So, is Mark Zuckerbeg still too good at grabbing stuff but giving nothing in return apart from Facebook, ofcourse? Well, his protective armour has been stripped. And it's a sight to behold.

To put things straight, YahooMail has already done it. So, my inactive yahoo ID did come of use finally. It's simple. Import contacts from Facebook using Yahoo's import feature under Tools in the YahooMail contacts page. Then, download the yahoo contacts as a csv file on your computer. After this, all you have to do is go to Gmail and import the csv file and voila! You are ready to go.

Go ahead, lets hope you have not forgotten your Yahoo! password. And if you are utterly jobless, trawl through the 1000+ emails in your Yahoo! inbox. I am in 666 and counting.